The elephant in the room

[mousme]

A bronze statuette representing Ganesh sits on one of the small shelves in my kitchen.

I've had this little Ganesh since 1993, when my father brought it back from India. My parents also have a wooden bas-relief carving of Ganesh hanging on a wall at their home, from that trip. I am very fond of him, and he has accompanied me through four moves. He invariably sits on a shelf, and watches patiently as my life unfolds. Whenever I'm home, my gaze invariably strays to him, and sometimes I'll reach out and touch him. My father told me at the time that he was a divinity of Luck, something which appealed to me greatly at the time, but which further reading has led me to doubt.

The Wikipedia article I linked to has this to say:

Ganesha is widely revered as the Remover of Obstacles and more generally as Lord of Beginnings and Lord of Obstacles (Vighnesha, Vighneshvara), patron of arts and sciences, and the deva of intellect and wisdom. He is honoured at the start of rituals and ceremonies and invoked as Patron of Letters during writing sessions.

I think my attraction/fascination is explained much better by this. In spite of this apparent affinity, I'm still kind of perplexed by it.

I have never identified as a pagan. I don't believe in the gods of any pantheon. If I believe in any God at all, it's the Christian God, or rather my own version of a Divinity present in all things. I don't understand my attachment to this god who isn't my own, who belongs to a religion that I have never studied and never belonged to, that I really know nothing about. I wouldn't know what to do with a deva if it came and smacked me upside the head.

Yet this little statuette has followed me faithfully for more than fifteen years. I can't imagine my home without Ganesh, sitting cross-legged and pot-bellied on a shelf, two arms folded down, the other two held aloft, a mouse creeping along at his feet. I can truthfully say that I have spent more time with this deity than with any other in my whole lifetime.

I'm not sure what it means, if anything.

Comments

[mousme.livejournal.com]

What *would* you do with a deva?